Trillion Dollar Coin Proposal Doesn’t Go Far Enough

Steve Stanek is a research fellow at The Heartland Institute and a former managing editor of two Heartland publications, "Budget & Tax News" and "Finance, Insurance & Real Estate News." Stanek's articles have appeared in numerous local, state and national publications since he began writing for Heartland in 2003, and he has been a frequent guest on local and national radio and television programs discussing government budget and regulatory issues.

Some members of Congress, along with the always entertaining New York Times columnist and economist Paul Krugman, have proposed creating a $1 trillion coin to solve the federal government’s debt ceiling problem.

We at The Heartland Institute had a conference call yesterday, and some people on the call scoffed at the notion. The more I think about it, though, the more I like it. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I think the proposal needs to be more bold.

Krugman and other committed Keynesian economists (Keynesians who should be committed?) have long told us the printing press can produce whatever amount of money is needed to cover however much debt the government runs up.

“[W]e have our own currency — and almost all of our debt, both private and public, is denominated in dollars. So our government, unlike the Greek government, literally can’t run out of money. After all, it can print the stuff,” Krugman wrote in his Nov. 25, 2012 column.

So why not have the government print up all our tax obligations? We could end the IRS! We could throw the entire US tax code into the shredder!

Imagine how much economic activity there’d be if no business or individual ever again had to pay tax! With economists like Paul Krugman and Congressmen like New York’s Jerrold Nadler advocating a $1 trillion coin, they’ve taken us an important step in that direction. But it’s only a step.

I say the government should print or mint enough money for itself so that no one ever needs to pay tax again!